Pennsylvania orthopedic surgeon Edwards Park “Ned” Schwentker, M.D., former Director of rehabilitation and pediatric orthopedic surgeon at the Elizabethtown Hospital for Children and the Hershey Medical Center, has died at age 82 in Palmyra, New York.
Dr. Schwentker is remembered by family, friends, colleagues and patients for his compassionate nature and his unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
He had such a passion for learning and helping others that he continued to start new chapters in his career instead of “officially” retiring. He didn’t stop until the pandemic forced him to in 2020.
Dr. Schwentker earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and completed his residency in orthopedics at the University of Pittsburgh.
Schwentker also completed a pediatric orthopedic fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, and worked at the Alfred I. duPont Institute in Wilmington, Delaware.
In 1976 he began his tenure at the Hershey Medical Center and at the Elizabethtown Hospital for Children and Youth where he served as medical director.
During his tenure, he invented multiple devices in the hospital brace lab. He served at Hershey as a pediatric orthopedist and director of rehabilitation until he “retired” the first time.
Over the years Dr. Schwentker participated in medical missions to Armenia and Honduras and those experiences inspired him to open a pediatric orthopedic hospital in Honduras with his wife.
They moved there and ran it until Bunny became seriously ill and died.
When he returned to the U.S., he worked with medical students at Penn State College of Medicine on problem-based learning.
Schwentker was born in Sterling, New York, on February 5, 1941, but spent his formative years in Baltimore. He graduated from Gilman School and Haverford College before going onto to pursue medicine.
He married his wife Nancy “Bunny” Ravitch in 1964 and they raised three children together.
Schwentker was predeceased by his parents, Francis, and Madalyn (Crockett), his brother Frederic, and his wife Bunny.
He leaves behind his sister Ann Phillips of Towson, Maryland and his children Ann, Pam and Mark, his partner Penny MacDougal, and eight grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
This man saved my life once. Although it’s been 40 years since I last saw him, I have never forgotten him. I’m sorry to learn of his passing.